Getting there
Via the village of Saty; the lake is about 20 kilometres from Kolsai. The last 10 kilometres of road were under repair in 2025–2026.
These spruces have stood in the water for over a century, and only recently did someone ask them how old they are.
A landslide blocked the gorge, water flooded the spruce forest, and the cold water, no warmer than six degrees even in summer, preserved the trunks. Their dry tops still stick out above the surface.
The lake's birth is usually tied to the 1911 earthquake; you will read that almost everywhere. But in February 2025 the journal Natural Hazards published a tree-ring study: the lake formed between 1888 and 1898. So the likely culprit is the Chilik earthquake of 1889.
The lake is about 400 metres long and about 20–30 metres deep. Its name means “abounding in birches”: a large birch grove grows at the mouth of the gorge.
- Altitude
- about 1,870 m
- Length
- about 400 m
- Water in summer
- up to +6 °C
- From Almaty
- about 280 km by road
